This invention relates to a floor covering particularly well suited for use in moist rooms and on outside surfaces. The floor covering reliably seals the covered sub-flooring against external influences and the use of additional insulation is unnecessary.
When laying conventional floors on patios, balconies, in moist rooms, etc., it is commonly necessary to first apply an undercoating which blocks moisture. Next, an outermost surface covering which is suitable to be walked upon is applied to the undercoating. The installation requires several steps. In spite of the usual precautionary measures taken, the undercoating is often not watertight, and water damage often occurs particularly under high stress.
As undercoating, bitumen layers of varying thicknesses are used, upon which thick foam material sheets, for instance, of polystyrene, are placed for distributing the pressure. This, however, results in a thick structure which is not suitable for use in old buildings and, for space reasons, not always suitable for use in new buildings.
Wear-resistant, thin floor coverings, for instance, those comprised of rubber often cannot be laid without difficulty on conventional undercoatings. While rubber is water and weather resistant, it is known that in conjunction with these desirable properties, rubber floor coverings tend to repel adhesive, so that rubber sheets exhibit little adhesion to conventional undercoatings. The adhesion obtained is, as a rule, not sufficient to securely bond the wear-resistant layer. In addition, installation often must take place in wet and outside areas, where the choice of adhesives is very limited because of the danger of hydrolysis of the adhesive. Therefore, the installation process becomes very elaborate and expensive.
It is an object of this invention to develop a combined sealing cover and an outermost surface floor covering suitable to be walked upon which is absolutely reliable with respect to moisture blockage, has minimal thickness, and is mechanically resistant (i.e. wear resistant). The outermost surface covering of this invention is comprised of synthetic rubber.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a method for installing a floor covering which satisfies the objectives outlined above. It is also an object of this invention to provide an economical method for installing such a covering.